Norman Catherine (born September 1949 in East London, South Africa) is a South African artist whose body of work spans painting, sculpture, printmaking and mixed media. He collaborated closely with iconic South African artist Walter Battiss on the Fook Island concept from 1973.
Norman Catherine's artistic career began in 1969 with his first solo exhibition at the Herbert Evans Gallery in Johannesburg, which included oil paintings on wood, bone, wire and a variety of found objects. Since then he has continued to create new work and develop his style. Hazel Friedman describes his development as follows
"In the thirty years spanning his past and present output, Catherine’s visual trademarks have included rough-edged comical and nightmarish forms, rendered in brash cartoon colours. His idiosyncratic vision – a combination of dark cynicism and exuberant humour, as well as his innovative use of everyday material, has secured his place at the forefront of South African contemporary art " Hazel Friedman on Norman Catherine .
He lives and works from his home, named Fook Manor, near the Hartbeespoort Dam outside of Pretoria.
Norman Catherine's work spans a variety of media including painting, sculpture, mixed media, printmaking, tapestry and bronze. His work is characterised by a dystopian vision of the socio-political landscape that shapes his psyche. Themes such as history, horror, crime, conflict, psychosis, politics and pathology stimulate his creative process, which oscillates between the macabre and the comic. He conveys his cynical outlook by juxtaposing dark and light sentiments, moving between an inner hallucinatory realm and a literal commentary on the material world.
His work is represented in public and private collections in South Africa and internationally, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Brooklyn Museum in New York. In 1993, he was invited to exhibit for the South African Pavilion at the 45th Venice Biennale. In 2006, the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) presented a retrospective entitled 'Now & Then'.
Beezy Bailey is a South African artist who works in various media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking and ceramics. He has worked full-time as an artist for 30 years, with over 20 one-man shows in London, Johannesburg and Cape Town as well as group shows around the world.
Brett Murray is a South African artist mostly known for his steel and mixed media wall sculptures. He was born in Pretoria, South Africa. Murray has a master's degree in fine art from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, 1989. Referred to by critic Brenda Atkinson as "the dark prince of South African pop (art)", Murray is one of the country's most popular artists, often using easily recognisable media images with the addition of a subversive and bitterly funny twist. Murray's work addresses the wars of the cultures, the clash between Afrocentrism and Eurocentrism, the old and the new South Africas. "With my work I hope to critically entertain. Through satirical and tragic reflections on South Africa, I hope to shift people's perspectives and change people's minds, indulgent, arrogant and pretentious as this might sound," he says. More recently, his work has explored his own personal experiences and identity. Murray was also the founder of the sculpture department at Stellenbosch University.
Paul Johan du Toit was a South African artist, working in painting, sculpture, paper and mixed media. His exhibits have been displayed globally. Most notably, three of his sculptures were selected for the 2001 Florence Biennale.
Willie Bester is a South African painter, sculptor and collage artist. He is best known for his role in the protesting of the apartheid system through his artwork. He currently lives in Kuilsrivier, South Africa with his wife, Evelyn and their three children.
Willem Boshoff is one of South Africa's foremost contemporary artists and regularly exhibits nationally and internationally.
Berry Bickle is a Zimbabwean artist who resides in Maputo. Born in Bulawayo, Bickle attended the Chisipite Senior School in Harare. Later, she attended the Durban Institute of Technology, where she obtained a national diploma in fine arts, and South Africa's Rhodes University, where she obtained a master's degree in fine arts. Bickle was a founding member of Bulawayo's Visual Artists' Association.
Nicholas Mukomberanwa, was a Zimbabwean sculptor and art teacher. He was among the most famous protégés of the Workshop School at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. He was a mentor to the Mukomberanwa Family of sculptors. Mukomberanwa married his first wife, sculptor Grace, in 1965 and they had eight children. In 1965, he decided to end his career with the police to become a sculptor full-time. He continued to hone his skills over the following decade, developing one of the most distinctive personal styles found in his generation of Zimbabwean stone sculptors. The gambit paid off, and by the late 1970s and in the 1980s his work was being shown in many venues. His work has been exhibited in galleries around the world. He also became mentor to many artists in Zimbabwe, including his children Anderson Mukomberanwa, Ennica Mukomberanwa, Lawrence Mukomberanwa, Netsai Mukomberanwa, Taguma Mukomberanwa,Tendai Mukomberanwa and nephew, Nesbert Mukomberanwa who are also sculptors. He remains one of Zimbabwe's most famous artists.
Nathaniel Stern is an American/South African interdisciplinary artist who works in a variety of media, including photography, interactive art, public art interventions, installation, video art, net.art and printmaking. He is currently a Professor of Art and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
Tracey Rose is a South African artist who lives and works in Johannesburg. Rose is best known for her performances, video installations, and photographs.
Hugo Debaere (1958–1994) was a Belgian contemporary artist. His practice spanned a broad range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, installation art, mixed media and performance.
Godfried Donkor is a Ghanaian artist, living and working in London, who has exhibited in Cuba, Mexico, the US, Europe and Africa. He is known primarily for his work in collage, and has been described as similar to Keith Piper and Isaac Julien in his output. Some of his pieces depict boxers, such as Jack Johnson and Mohammad Ali. Donkor has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, both in the United States and in Europe, and was Ghana's representative to the 2001 Venice Biennale. His work is in the collection of the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution.
Hany Armanious is an Egyptian born, Australian artist who lives and works in Sydney. Armanious produces installations and sculptural forms, as well as paintings and drawings.
Mounir Fatmi is a Moroccan artist. His multimedia practice encompasses video, installation, drawing, painting and sculpture, and he works with obsolete materials.
Sanell Aggenbach is a South African artist living and working in Woodstock, Cape Town. Using painting, printmaking, and sculpture, her work addresses the relationship between history and private narratives, with a sense of ambiguity. Her work also explores the processes of nostalgia and historical myth-making, often incorporating the playful, disarming, and absurd to draw the viewer into discussions of darker subjects. She has a unique style of combining traditional painting techniques with sculptural elements, as well as typically feminine crafts such as sewing and tapestry.
Johan Thom, is a visual artist who works across video, installation, performance and sculpture. He has been described as one of South Africa's foremost performance artists.
Wayne Barker, South African visual artist. Barker is based in Johannesburg. He rose to prominence in the late 80s, at the height of political unrest under the Apartheid regime. His work has featured in several global biennales, art fairs and important retrospective exhibitions. He works in various mediums, including but not limited to painting, printmaking, sculpture, video, performance and installation. In addition to collaborations with other artists, Barker has collaborated with the Qubeka Beadwork Studio based in Cape Town, to realise large scale glass beadworks.
Zak Ové is a British-Trinidad visual artist who works between sculpture, film and photography, living in London and Trinidad. His themes reflect "his documentation of and anthropological interest in diasporic and African history, specifically that which is explored through Trinidadian carnival." In work that is "filtered through his own personal and cultural upbringing, with a black Trinidadian father and white Irish mother", he has exhibited widely in Europe, the United States and Africa, participating in international museum shows in London, Dakar, Paris, Dubai, Prague, Berlin, Johannesburg, Bamako and New York City. His father is the filmmaker Horace Ové and his sister is the actress Indra Ové.
Lisa Brice is a South African painter and visual artist from Cape Town. She lives in London and cites some of her influences as her experiences growing up in South Africa during a time of political upheaval, and from time spent living and working in Trinidad.
Jacob van Schalkwyk is a South African visual artist and writer.
Mmakgabo Mmapula Mmangankato Helen Sebidi is a South African artist born in Marapyane (Skilpadfontein) near Hammanskraal, Pretoria, who lives and works in Johannesburg. Sebidi's work has been represented in private and public collections, including at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington and New York, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, New York, and the World Bank. Her work has been recognised internationally and locally. In 1989, she won the Standard Bank Young Artist award, becoming the first black woman to win the award. In 2004, President Thabo Mbeki awarded her the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver – which is the highest honor given to those considered a "national treasure". In 2011, she was awarded the Arts and Culture Trust (ACT) Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual Art, while in 2015 she received the Mbokodo Award. In September 2018, Sebidi was honoured with one of the first solo presentations at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town – a retrospective entitled Batlhaping Ba Re.